PHILADELPHIA, Feb. 26, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- AT&T* invested nearly $650 million in its greater Philadelphia area wireless and wireline networks from 2010 through 2012, with a focus on expanding 4G LTE mobile Internet coverage and enhancing the overall performance of its networks.**

People in the greater Philadelphia area, increasingly depend on mobile Internet connections for communication, entertainment and productivity at work, at home and everywhere in between. AT&T's continued investment is designed to deliver the highest levels of service, with network enhancements driving improvements in key areas of the mobile Internet experience: 4G speed, broad coverage and network reliability.

"We know the mobile Internet has become central to our customers' lives, and we're committed to driving both investment and innovation to deliver the best possible experience over the AT&T network," said Tiffany Baehman, vice president general manager, greater Philadelphia area. "While third-party and internal testing shows that these investments are paying off with excellent service for customers in the greater Philadelphia area, we are continually planning and deploying network enhancements to improve service in the future."

AT&T customers are benefitting from more than 950 wireless network upgrades in six key categories in the greater Philadelphia area - which includes parts of southern New Jersey and Delaware - during 2012, including activating new cell sites, adding capacity, upgrading cell sites to provide fast 4G LTE mobile Internet speeds, deploying high-capacity Ethernet connections to cell sites, and adding or upgrading Distributed Antenna Systems, which boost wireless coverage and capacity in buildings and at major venues like convention halls or sports arenas.

The AT&T 4G LTE network has been nationally recognized for its speed and coverage. AT&T 4G LTE delivered faster average download speeds than any of the competitors in PCWorld's most recent 13-market speed tests, and telecommunications industry analyst firm Frost and Sullivan awarded AT&T its North American Mobile Network Strategy Award for the second year in a row in 2012.

"Investment in the wireless and broadband networks in Philadelphia and the region is critical to keeping us competitive and providing our citizens with the best technology in today's global economy," said Philadelphia City Councilman David Oh, chairman of the Council's Committee on Global Opportunities and the Creative/Innovative Economy. "Significant and continued high-tech investment like this help our business community, our local economy, our overall quality of life and our regional ability to innovate and compete against anyone anywhere in the world."

"Across the greater Philadelphia area, this robust investment in the AT&T wireless and wireline networks is important to spurring the economy and creating jobs. In our wireless world, mobile and broadband networks create economic opportunities for health care, manufacturing, education, transportation and public safety and virtually every other economic sector," said J. Michael Schweder, president, AT&T Mid-Atlantic.

Planned Investment to Expand Reach of Wireless and Wired Broadband

AT&T recently launched Project Velocity IP (VIP), a three-year investment initiative to expand and enhance its wireless and wired IP broadband networks. As part of Project VIP, AT&T plans to increase the density of its wireless network by deploying more than 10,000 macro sites, more than 1,000 distributed antenna systems, and more than 40,000 small cells. Through this initiative, we also plan to:

Expand 4G LTE to cover more than 300 million people by year-end 2014

Expand the AT&T wired IP broadband network to cover approximately 75 percent of customer locations in our wired service area by year-end 2015

Expand the AT&T fiber network to reach 1 million additional business locations by year-end 2015

For more information about AT&T's coverage in Pennsylvania or anywhere in the U.S., consumers can visit the AT&T Coverage Viewer. Using the online tool, AT&T customers can measure quality of coverage from a street address, intersection, ZIP code or even a landmark. For updates on the AT&T wireless network, please visit the AT&T network news page.

*AT&T products and services are provided or offered by subsidiaries and affiliates of AT&T Inc. under the AT&T brand and not by AT&T Inc.

**Limited 4G LTE availability in select markets. 4G speeds not available everywhere. LTE is a trademark of ETSI. Compatible device and data plan required. Learn more at att.com/network.

About AT&T

AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is a premier communications holding company and one of the most honored companies in the world. Its subsidiaries and affiliates – AT&T operating companies – are the providers of AT&T services in the United States and internationally. With a powerful array of network resources that includes the nation's largest 4G network, AT&T is a leading provider of wireless, Wi-Fi, high speed Internet, voice and cloud-based services. A leader in mobile Internet, AT&T also offers the best wireless coverage worldwide of any U.S. carrier, offering the most wireless phones that work in the most countries. It also offers advanced TV services under the AT&T U-verse® and AT&T | DIRECTV brands. The company's suite of IP-based business communications services is one of the most advanced in the world.

Additional information about AT&T Inc. and the products and services provided by AT&T subsidiaries and affiliates is available at http://www.att.com. This AT&T news release and other announcements are available at http://www.att.com/newsroom and as part of an RSS feed at www.att.com/rss. Or follow our news on Twitter at @ATT.

Information set forth in this press release contains financial estimates and other forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results might differ materially. A discussion of factors that may affect future results is contained in AT&T's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. AT&T disclaims any obligation to update and revise statements contained in this news release based on new information or otherwise.

Between 2005 and 2020, data volumes will grow by a factor of 300 – enough data to stack CDs from the earth to the moon 162 times. This has come to be known as the ‘big data’ phenomenon. Unfortunately, traditional approaches to handling, storing and analyzing data aren’t adequate at thi...

In his general session at 19th Cloud Expo, Manish Dixit, VP of Product and Engineering at Dice, discussed how Dice leverages data insights and tools to help both tech professionals and recruiters better understand how skills relate to each other and which skills are in high demand usin...

Cloud Expo, Inc. has announced today that Andi Mann returns to 'DevOps at Cloud Expo 2017' as Conference Chair
The @DevOpsSummit at Cloud Expo will take place on June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY.
"DevOps is set to be one of the most profound disruptions to hi...

20th Cloud Expo, taking place June 6-8, 2017, at the Javits Center in New York City, NY, will feature technical sessions from a rock star conference faculty and the leading industry players in the world.
Cloud computing is now being embraced by a majority of enterprises of all sizes. ...

With major technology companies and startups seriously embracing IoT strategies, now is the perfect time to attend @ThingsExpo 2016 in New York. Learn what is going on, contribute to the discussions, and ensure that your enterprise is as "IoT-Ready" as it can be! Internet of @ThingsExp...

Kubernetes is a new and revolutionary open-sourced system for managing containers across multiple hosts in a cluster. Ansible is a simple IT automation tool for just about any requirement for reproducible environments. In his session at @DevOpsSummit at 18th Cloud Expo, Patrick Galbrai...